Victim of 7/7 bombing 'might have been saved'

Saba Mozakka whose mother, Behnaz, died on 7/7 at a memorial in Hyde Park. The family now know Behnaz lived for 45 minutes after the explosion. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/AP

The family of a woman killed in the 7 July 2005 suicide bombings in London questioned today whether emergency services could have saved her life, after the family learned that she survived for 45 minutes following the attacks.

For five years, relatives assumed Behnaz Mozakka, 47 and from Finchley in north London, died instantly when Germaine Lindsay blew himself up on a tube train between King's Cross and Russell Square. Two weeks ago they learned she was conscious after the blast and spoke to a police officer, a pre-inquest hearing was told.

Seventeen of the 52 innocent people killed in the 2005 London bombings did not die instantly, a document submitted to the hearing revealed.

Gareth Patterson, representing her relatives and three other families, argued that the inquests should investigate whether the emergency services could have saved more lives. The family was entitled to an inquiry into why she apparently failed to receive timely treatment, he said. "They want to know what happened to her in the crucial minutes after the explosion."

The coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, is holding a legal hearing to decide what form the inquests, due to start in October, should take. Christopher Coltart, representing seven of the bereaved families, said the inquests should investigate if the atrocities could have been avoided.

He said: "In the 15-month period or so leading up to the bombings in July 2005, MI5 and the police were between them in possession of a significant amount of information about the bombers, two of them in particular, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. If, we submit, appropriate, available and proportionate action had been taken at an earlier stage, it may have been possible that the events of July 7 could have been avoided."